Help with Pool Fence Code

cutter2010July 9, 2010

Here's my current deal. One part of the yard is about to have a retaining wall built where a step up fence would go.

My town has a 5 foot regulation and this exact area where the step up would occur is not 5 Feet. For example, the child could be on wall and the height of the wall would only be 3.5 feet at this very point.

Anyone have any ideas on how to get this to code?

I am debating on not putting in a wall in this area and just grading it so the fence goes up the grade maintaining a consistant five feet. Would rather not break up the wall though. The view you are seeing below is more of a cross view as the fence intersects with the wall. The wall is being built Mon/Tues of next week.

These fence codes are ridiculous. I live on a lake and I need to change the swing on my 5' iron gate so that it opens outward. Presumably so that small children cannot push it in and gain access to the pool. The silly part is that the lake edge is only 10' away from the gate. It would be funny if it weren't so incredibly stupid!!!

All that being said you could consider extending the upper section a bit past grade then making a small section that is 6 1/2'. You should check to ensure this will pass but there won't be any sections that are less than the 5' requirement.

Any update on what you did here? We have a 3 foot (actually, it may be closer to 4) retaining wall that we need to bring our fence up (no choice). I would like an elegant, but SAFE solution....Looking for ideas.

My solution for our 5 foot retaining wall is not very elegant but this fence is not required by code. We put it up to keep our 4 year old, who is a great swimmer but is 4..., from wandering into the pool unattended.

The fence is going around our pool only (we are paranoid about our kids, or others, on the swingset, then running into the pool).

It is going to go in between the two paved parts as shown (with the gate in the middle of the path). The fence will go up the wall to about where the temporary fence is and cut across. So we have to worry about how it will look in several places (BTW, it is going to be 5' black aluminum fence). Since the wall is about 3.5-4' at that point and the fence is 5' I am worried about how it is going to look. The fence guy didn't sound too promising, as he said "sometimes people hang flowers at the edge of the fence so it isn't so noticeable that there is 10' high fence that drops down to 5'"....

I am thinking about some custom made solution just for that part. It might cost some extra $, but we are already spending soooo much, it is "in the noise" (I have used the phrase so many times, our costs are up 50% more then we wanted to spend).